Although the issue has faded from the news, the “import alert” stands, and we have been hearing a great deal from food safety exports. Much of our analysis has been focused on the FDA and with good reason. Its procedures are disorganized, its field staff often not knowledgeable and it has, to be blunt, been acting as a bully, intimidating people to announce recalls.

Yet, whatever the flaws of the FDA — and we have not written the last of our coverage on that subject — it would be a horrible mistake for the industry to think this matter was just about FDA abuse.

It is also about cantaloupes.

Food safety experts we have great faith in have pointed us to evidence indicating that cantaloupes — particularly — are vulnerable, in a way smooth-skinned melons are not, toward picking up and retaining pathogens. We assume it has something to do with the netting, but there has been little research.

In a sense, our critique of the FDA is that its actions are not helping the public health because it has no reason to believe that the cantaloupes people will eat from elsewhere are any safer –and we stand by that opinion.

Yet it is also probably true that cantaloupes are more likely to transmit illness than honeydew or watermelon.

The industry has to recognize that the problem is not this farm or this country. We will achieve nothing by chasing the sun around the world to find safer places to grow cantaloupes.

What we actually need is a research project along the lines of what we have going on for leafy greens.